Experimentation in surfboard design dates back to the 1940s, when surfing first gained worldwide popularity in Hawaii. There have been many types of designs, beginning with the long board. The long board, typically between 7 and 11 feet long, is a heavy surfboard that usually incorporates a single fin, called a skag, in the center of the tail of the surfboard. Longboards are especially useful for riding small waves, as well as big waves, because of their stability. However, because of their length (and often their girth as well) longboards suffer from a lack of maneuverability.
Since the early 80's, the most popular surfboard design has been the high performance shortboard, also known as a thruster. A thruster is much more maneuverable than a longer board, and often incorporates more than one skag at the tail end of the board. While thrusters are maneuverable, they also require more physical strength to ride than the typical longboard. Thrusters are thinned down as much as possible creating a board that lacks floatation and offering poor paddling ability. They can be very difficult to catch waves on and, unless you're a surfer of considerable skill, shortboards prove to be very difficult to ride in weak/small surf. These boards are designed for performance minded surfers and are designed for quality surf. Thrusters need to be turned continuously to generate speed and allow surfers to perform many tricks, including airs, tail slides, floaters, reverses, etc. The shortboard design is more appropriate for the intermediate level to advanced level surfer and is not used by a beginner.
The designs of the longboard and the shortboard thruster have changed very little over the last 40 years, aside from shaping and styling differences. Long boards still typically use one scag, and aside from different tail designs and slight changes to materials, have remain relatively unchanged otherwise. Likewise, thrusters haven't changed much in the last 20 years. Aside from minor style and materials changes, and the appearance of channels on the bottom side of the board, thrusters still appear as they did in 1981.
There remains a heartfelt need for improvements to the basic designs of available surfboards. A design that incorporates the stability of the longboard with the maneuverability of a shortboard would be a tremendous leap forward in the evolution of surfboard design.